Rafa, Jerome, Djourou & Signorino

A few player related stories popping up today. Nothing truly spectacular so I might as well whack them all together in one blog.

Black : Rafa can be Prem star – I don’t know why but when I read this story, I wasn’t enthused at all. Usually if Black gives a player a ringing endorsement, I feel a lot more confident but I don’t get that sense with Schmitz. Maybe because he sort of skulked in, no fanfare, through the back door? I don’t know, either way, I still feel like we need at least two centre halves.

The plus side is that he has a good left foot and has played full back before. If we do sign Ridgewell from Aston Villa and Johan Djourou from Arsenal, it means that Sadler could be fighting it our with Schmitz for the one left back spot available.

I think I’d be okay with that although I still would’ve preferred Paul Konchesky. Wouldn’t we all? I’d much rather have Schmitz – although admittedly, I don’t know much about him – at full back than Robinson from West Bromwich Albion. He simply wouldn’t be good for team morale.

I said yesterday that I believe Brucey will have more of a go at playing attacking, attractive football this season and Jerome looks as though he’s confirmed that. There’s no way Bruce will be able to keep everyone happy if he decides at some point that it’s not working. There’s too many quality attack-minded players to keep happy this time around.

The stuff about players playing on form and not on name is interesting too. I think Jerome – despite people expecting big things of him – knows that he isn’t going to be first choice, at least initially, and will have to wait for his chance to come along. Missing a couple of chances at Championship level is fine. In this league, you have to take at least one of those chances if you want to survive. I think he knows that and is prepared to work at it.

Blues still keen on Djourou – I think Arsenal have got bigger things to worry about at the moment! Maybe we should organise an SAS type raid to just nick Djourou in the middle of the night?

I think he’ll end up coming here despite it having gone quiet in recent weeks. There’s lots of articles talking about Djourou today. Him and Ridgewell and that’ll be us done for this transfer window. They’ll all be bedded in for when Chelsea rolls around in a few weeks. I’ve been very impressed with the way we’ve gone about things this window and Djourou and Ridgewell would seal the icing nicely on the cake.

Blues in for French full back – No doubt that this link has come from Eric Black’s time in France. If this happens, it’s unlikely that we’ll sign Ridgewell and Djourou. I’d say that Djourou is likely to be put on the back burner if this one comes off.

I could’ve sworn I blogged about Signorino about a week ago but a quick search shows that I haven’t. If this one develops further, say a link in a local, I’ll perhaps blog about it more in depth.

Comments

15 Responses to “Rafa, Jerome, Djourou & Signorino”

chris on
July 25th, 2007 5:53 pm

i too, like most blue noses, am getting very excited by developments at blues. the signings so far have been very good and it is now time to concentrate on the back line.

i am happy with the goalkeepers, i would not be surprised if maik taylor wanted to leave, but i would still be happy the ones left over.

at right back we are looking very good. two very good right backs who are capable further up field and on either side (including the middle).

at left back we have one capable player but no competition or backup. i am not disappointed at missing out on konchesky. his temper and size put me off. there are not many good left backs out there but one option may be frank quedrue from fulham, maybe eric black could use his french connections. gareth bale on loan from spurs, jordan stewart from watford, paul robinson from baggies, armand traore from the arse but please not djimi traore from portsmouth.

does tebily still play for blues?

at centre back im not at all confident about jaidi and taylor, neither of these would be in my ideal blues team for the new season. but who do we replace them with? rafael has signed but not played, ridgewell has been linked but this still means that we will not have ideal centre halves. there is no talker or organiser (e.g. cunningham).

who would you like to see in central defence?

Clive on
July 25th, 2007 6:45 pm

It’s not just defence that needs more players. the breaking news is that the Mido and Ghaly deals have fallen through and Blues are again sniffing around Cole because he is about to be released.
They Don’t have the money to sign Ridgewell and a left back, so a loan deal is their only option. Apparantly, Robinson at WBA is also off the list as he failed a medical at Sunderland.

chris on
July 25th, 2007 7:14 pm

if it does fall through, as reported by mido, blues should spend some of the money on curtis davies and find another striker, the yak will do

rich on
July 25th, 2007 8:32 pm

cant believe it, why would the deals be on the brink of collapse for mido and ghaly, youd think the club would be puttin all stops out for them any info on this?

lars lindholm on
July 25th, 2007 10:32 pm

according to Daily mail Mido wants 2 mill. Pund a year and ghaly 1,5 mill Pund. its to much. Buy Liam Ridgewll instead and a another striker. Maybe Forssel again will reach his level.

Phil on
July 25th, 2007 11:47 pm

Typical Blues, Mido was supposed to be the “Big Un”, we obviously don’t want him or Ghaly bad enough.
No surprise to see the deal fall through, what happened to the reported “splashing the cash” and closing out the deal.
The season will soon be here and I’m concerned that the squad will be understaffed, we lost Konchesky because we were too slow to catch a cold, now it looks like Mido will also go elsewheres, along with Ghaly. The board needs to step up to the plate.

Pete on
July 26th, 2007 8:10 am

Shocking ! Why have Bruce & the board been spouting off about these signings that theyre as good as in the bag when they are still so far apart on personal terms…..numpties

Woody on
July 26th, 2007 10:34 am

I’m disgusted with the way these transfers have been handled. Not so much with the reluctance to break the wage structure, that is a different debate in itself. I’m more unhappy that all Blues’ transfers seem to be talked about for weeks on end before they happen. A soap opera saga then ensues until either we all breath a sigh of relief when the player signs or we end up with egg on our faces when the deal blows up. I had a feeling that this particular deal would go sour, particularly after it had been talked up. I realise Mido was the first to break the story but the club would have been well advised to make no further comment until it was all wrapped up.

Take a look at the way Fulham snatched Konchesky and a quiet and efficient manner. The first anyone knew of when was after the player had signed. The same can be said of West Ham’s capture of Ljunberg. Of course, not every transfer can be conducted in absolute secrecy but it seems that all too many of our dealings are played out in the full glare of the media spotlight. Again we look like amateurs. Very disappointed !

daddyblue on
July 26th, 2007 11:34 am

It was Mido that released it to the press i dont blame Bruce or the board. It seems strange that wages would not have been agreed with agent in some sort of way to stop a lot of wasted time.KRO

B1uenose on
July 26th, 2007 11:47 am

It all seems a bit suss doesn’t it?

If the Mido deal really is dead, I think we should go for Yakubu…

unless (conspiracy theory here) when Bruce/board heard that Yakubu may be available, they took a hardline with Mido so that that would fall through leaving us free to concentrate on Yakubu???
i can but dream…..

Clive on
July 26th, 2007 12:50 pm

The asking price for Yakubu is £10 so we are about £7 short of the asking price. Sorry, but the only other forward on his way to the blues is Andy cole.
Whatever money they have will now be spent on Ridgewell and Paul Robinson. then that’s your lot!!

BlueCrows on
July 26th, 2007 12:52 pm

I’m not sure the problem is wages per se – more like clauses in the contract. I would assume that this is probably “you WILL take a 50% pay cut if we are relegated” which Mido is reluctant to sign up to

PB- B'ham fan on
July 26th, 2007 1:43 pm

Clive we agreed a £6 million fee for Mido the cash won’t be handed in one lump sum but no transfers are ever done like that. So were about £4 million short of the asking price for Yakubu. But then Ghaly has also said he won’t accept terms that means were only a million away. I’d rather have Yakubu than Ghaly and Mido put together to be frank. I find it doubtfull that we’ll sign Ridgewell imagine all the noises coming out of Villa Park and I’m not talking just about the fans we all know what a moaner four- eyed O’Neill is.

Anthony Fern on
July 26th, 2007 2:11 pm

I hope Bruce does get at least 2 good defenders, however time is getting short before the new season and who ever we bring in does not have much time to get used to how we play. And please do not sign Andy Cole, he may have a good footballing brain but his legs have gone.

chris on
July 28th, 2007 9:02 am

i suppose its a foreign player thing, their own country interviewing them, but i do wish players would not report their transfers like ghaly and mido has. are they there own agents, because they cannot shut up.
it gets very bum twitchy when transfers are spoken about so early.
i suspect mido probably had a problem with having his wages halved if we got relegated, or his pay being appearance and goal related, but it looks off anyway.

so who should brucey go for? yakubu is unlikely in my eyes but would be pretty awesome. cole shouldnt even be looked at unless forsell picks up another injury. last time up we were after maccarone, olisadebe and of course clinton morrison. he appears to be after a big’un after going for viduka and mido, hope he doesnt go for rob hulse.

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